sʜᴏʀᴛ sᴛᴏʀɪᴇs [eng]

× hate × '³'

Character :

⚠️TW : mentioning of self-harm, anorexia ⚠️

×××

"EZRA!"

The teenager went quiet, looking up to one of his brothers.

"Enough! We all know this isn't easy, okay?! For none of us! But stop shouting!"

Mika never raised his voice. Not once in his life he did, so everyone was shook. It seemed like everything he ever felt was about to leave his body. His breathing was unstable.

"Shouting about it doesn't change anything! So just stop! It doesn't help at all!"

His body was shaking as he clenched his fists. Just like Taemin before, he teared up to.

"Just...stop. It just makes it worse that you knew..."

Nobody said anything after that and complete silence gathered around the family.

Until Taemin's phone rang. The man wiped his tears, took a deep breath and picked up.

"Brian?... Already? But it's snowing now isn't it?"

He turned around and looked out of the window just to see that he was right; and yes, it was snowing very very strongly.

"Should i pick you up? .... Oh, okay. Then, about Tōya, maybe we could..."

His slight smile dropped.

"But.....yea...yea, okay... Okay..."

Taemin ended the call with a small whisper.

"Brian. I love you. Don't forget that."

×

Brian smiled and looked up to the sky, thinking about what to do next about Tōya's situation. He's been starving himself and just ate small bites from time to time. He used alcohol to forget and escape the chaos he created. He cut....for what reason? Self-hate? Punishment? God, Brian really wanted to know and understand the pain his son has been going through.

When Tōya told him that he didn't want his brothers to visit him at all, Brian slowly got a grip of what was actually happening. He was the only person that Tōya showed this weak and fragile side to, his crying face while trying to explain his pain - Brian was the only one he wanted to see that, nor Taemin nor Jonghyun, not even Mika, none of them should've seen him like that.

He trusted Brian the most, so he let him see.
He saw what he did to the older man with his actions and felt guilty for doing so.
He never really understood other people's emotions, he didn't even understand himself.
He didn't know how it felt to be truly loved and cared about, nor the feeling of being appreciated.

But seeing a grown, strong man cry and panic like that made him realize what happened around him; what he was doing.

Tōya swore he wanted to be better and never hurt Brian like that again.